Attribution of gamma-ray background collected by a mobile detector system to its surroundings using panoramic video

Mobile radiation detector systems are important tools for detecting radiological and nuclear sources outside of regulatory control, but due to their mobility, they are subject to complex and varying backgrounds in most realistic operational scenarios. Recent work has found correlations between non-radiological contextual information and gamma-ray spectral features that can be used to decrease false alarm rates, however a more complete understanding of background source terms has been elusive. A measurement campaign developed a full radiological characterization of a controlled facility that roughly corresponded to two city blocks. As part of the campaign, the Radiological Multi-sensor Analysis Platform (RadMAP) collected extensive multi-sensor data. In this work, RadMAP’s panoramic video data were used to visually identify several different materials and quantify the detector response to each material. A linear model was fit between the material responses and radiological features, and the results demonstrate reasonable agreement with ground truth flux measurements for each material. This paper will describe the data collection, processing, and analysis of the gamma-ray and video data from RadMAP. The paper will conclude with perspectives on the applicability of such a method to less controlled environments both with respect to achieving better understanding the sources of variability of background radiation in urban environments and whether such methods could be leveraged in operational scenarios.